1. Field
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to a driver for driving an optical deflector and a method for setting drive voltages therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A prior art two-dimensional optical deflector is constructed by a mirror; a movable frame surrounding the mirror for supporting the mirror through a pair of torsion bars; inner piezoelectric actuators fixed between the movable frame and the torsion bars and serving as cantilevers for rocking the mirror through the torsion bars with respect to an X-axis of the mirror; a support body surrounding the movable frame; and meander-shaped outer piezoelectric actuators fixed between the support body and the movable frame and serving as cantilevers for rocking the mirror through the movable frame with respect to a Y-axis of the mirror perpendicular to the X-axis (see: JP2009-223165A).
Generally, in an optical scanner, the mirror is rocked with respect to the X-axis for a horizontal deflection at a high frequency such as 15 kHz, while the mirror is rocked with respect to the Y-axis for a vertical deflection at a low frequency such as 60 Hz.
In the described prior art two-dimensional optical deflector, since the inner piezoelectric actuators rock the mirror through the torsion bars, the inner piezoelectric actuators are driven by synchronous sinusoidal-wave drive voltages.
On the other hand, since the outer piezoelectric actuators rock the mirror without torsion bars, the outer piezoelectric actuators are driven by synchronous saw-tooth drive voltages. In more detail, the outer piezoelectric actuators are folded at every actuator or jetting, and a first group of the outer piezoelectric actuators and a second group of the outer piezoelectric actuators alternating with the first group of the outer piezoelectric actuators are driven by two synchronous saw-tooth drive voltages, respectively.
However, when the first and second groups of the outer piezoelectric actuators are driven by such two synchronous saw-tooth drive voltages, the synchronous saw-tooth drive voltages include harmonic frequency components in addition to their fundamental frequency. Therefore, even when the fundamental frequency of the synchronous saw-tooth drive voltages is smaller than the natural frequencies of a mechanically-vibrating system of the mirror with respect to the Y-axis depending upon the structure of the outer piezoelectric actuators, one of the above-mentioned harmonic frequency components would coincide with one of the natural frequencies or be brought close to one of the natural frequencies. In this case, this harmonic frequency component of the drive voltages would resonate with such a natural frequency of the mechanically-vibrating system of the mirror with respect to the Y-axis, so that a higher frequency vibration would be superimposed onto the rocking of the mirror with respect to the Y-axis.
In order to avoid higher frequency vibration of the mirror, one approach is to make the natural frequencies much larger than the fundamental frequency of the synchronous saw-tooth drive voltages. In this case, however, since the mechanically-vibrating system of the mirror including the outer piezoelectric actuators is hardened, it would be difficult to rock the mirror at a larger deflection angle.
Another approach is to use synchronous sinusoidal-wave drive voltages whose frequency is much larger than the natural frequencies of the mechanically-vibrating system of the mirror with respect to the Y-axis, instead of the synchronous saw-tooth drive voltages. In this case, however, a linearly-deflected period within one period of the synchronous sinusoidal-wave drive voltages where the deflection angle is linearly changed becomes too small, i.e., an effective scanning period becomes too small, so it is not practical in an image display apparatus such as a projector to use such an optical deflector.